THE DEUTSCHLAND.

Southland Times, Issue 17786, 15 July 1916, Page 4

THE DEUTSCHLAND.

America’s strongly pronounced appetite for the sensational was indulged to the full in connection with the arrival of the submarine Deutschland from Germany. We have no desire to belittle the achievement of the first German submarine Commander to cross the Atlantic. Germany's naval officers have shown themselves to be men of infinite resource and courage, and the men in command of the enemy's submarines have already placed many remarkable exploits to their credit. The voyage of the Deutschland is certainly a long passage for this class of vessel, but it is by no means a prodigious achievement, and it did not .call for greater oourage or skin than|has been shown hundreds of times during the war by the commanders of both Germany’s and Britain’s under-water craft. Since the outbreak of war no less than ten submarines, built in Canada, have made the journey to England, and prior to the war the two submarines built by Britain tor the Commonwealth came to Australia under their own power. After the outbreak at hostilities one of the Commonwealth submarines voyaged to the Dardanelles, entered the Sea of Marmora through the narrow and heavily mined strait, and unfortunately came to grief on a Turkish beach. Other British submarines escaped the hazards of the entrance to the Sea of Marmora, and many of them have wrought havoc in the Baltic in spite of the German patrols guarding the narrow entrance by the waters of the Skagerrack and Cattegat. The fact that the Deutschland avoided the blockade and successfully covered the long distance to America is not, therefore, an event of first importance from any point of view. It does not mark a new development in the possibilities of the submarine, and it certainly is of no Importance whatever from the mercantile point of view. The Deutschland might ■ be able to carry a fairly valuable cargo in the form of gold, but its value as a conveyance for the more bulky sinews of war in the shape of food products and raw materials for the manufacture of summons is scarcely worthy of consideration. The voyage may have some value from Germany’s point of view as a spectacular episode, pleasing to the people of Germany and not without a certain effect on neutrals, but as a factor in the war its value is absolutely nil.